July 1, 2018 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME GOSPEL MARK 5:21-43 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to Jesus, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction." While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?" Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith." He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep." And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.
July 1, 2018 GOSPEL MARK 5:21-43 Taken from Rice, Bob, The Beginner s Gospel, p. 34 How do you touch the hem of a garment? It means that you re crawling on the ground. Jesus, surrounded as he usually was by mobs of people, was on His way to perform one healing when He was stopped to do another. Imagine the desperation of this woman, clawing her way through the crowd to the point where she dives and reaches out her hand to touch the fringe of His cloak. Jesus immediately knew what happened. Who touched me? he asked. Christ does not condemn. He does not call her forward to blame her, but to let her know that she was saved. And in this action we see deeper into Jesus s heart. Never in the Bible do we see Jesus waving His hands and curing thousands of people at once. He always did it one by one, making personal contact with each sick person. He wanted to do more than end a sickness. He wanted to begin a relationship. He wanted to call her daughter. Of what have you been cured? To what lengths did you go to receive that cure? What spiritual cures have you experienced? How did you know that you were cured? In each cure, God wants to begin/deepen his relationship with us; he wants to reestablish our identity as son or daughter of the heavenly Father. What does that mean to you? How can we live out this deeper faith that we are his children? What action can I carry out this week to live out this Gospel message (resolution):
July 8, 2018 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME GOSPEL MARK 6: 1-6 Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house. So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
July 8, 2018 GOSPEL MARK 6: 1-6 Taken from Rice, Bob, The Beginner s Gospel: a Walk through the Gospel of Mark, 2002, pp 34-5. Strangers risked their lives because they believed in Jesus. But when He went home the people He grew up with didn t have any faith at all and would not accept Him. The result was, He could work no miracles there. In Scripture, faith is not just an intellectual belief but also inspired action. It is gauged, not by how much you think, but how much you do. The greater the action, the greater the faith. And the more we act in faith, the more God responds. Just as knowledge and practice make our faith alive, doubts and fear make it ineffective. Jesus could cure no one where they did not believe in Him. What family members have ridiculed or mocked your faith journey? How can they tell that you are on a faith journey? Which family members do you need to support in their faith journey? How can you put what you believe into action? Which stops you from living in faith more: doubt or fear? What action can I carry out this week to live out this Gospel message (resolution):
July 15, 2018 FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME GOSPEL MARK 6:7-13 Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them. So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
July 15, 2018 GOSPEL MARK 6:7-13 Taken from Rice, Bob, The Beginner s Gospel: a Walk through the Gospel of Mark, 2002, pp 36-37. [This Gospel] is not so much about Jesus, but about the ones who followed Him. Jesus sends out the twelve, two by two, to preach the word, cast out demons, and cure the sick. These were ordinary men: fishermen, tax collectors, etc. But now they are performing miracles! In the creed, one word we use to describe our Church is apostolic. That means that it came down to us from the Apostles. Jesus never wrote a book about Himself. He trusted his followers to spread the word. He still does today. Jesus is commissioning you to spread his message. Like the Apostles, we are all just ordinary people. But whoever He calls, he also equips. And the instructions he gave the 12 are for us as well: He sent them out in pairs. it is important that we don t be Lone Rangers in the witnessing our faith (even the Long Ranger had Tonto). Fellowship not only gives us more courage, but it makes our preaching more effective. If one person told you a movie was good, you might believe them. If two did, you d be more certain to check it out. The more people to witness, the more effective it is. Who is part of your two by two when you witness your faith? Who can you invite into that group? To whom do you need to witness? What action can I carry out this week to live out this Gospel message (resolution):
Feast Day Celebration of St. Mary Magdalen July 22, 2018 GOSPEL JN 20: 1-2, 11-18 On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her.
Feast Day Celebration of St. Mary Magdalen July 22, 2018 From Eidemiller, Mary, The Holy Desperation in Our Lives Our Sunday Visitor June 25-July 1, 2017 Prayer is not just for the holy. Catholic convert, ex-barfly, recovering alcoholic and author Heather King knows that. In its rawest form, in its gut-wrenching cry from darkness, from broken hearts and shattered lives, prayer reaches a loving God, even if the person praying thinks that God doesn t care. That s how she felt when life brought her to her knees. My first real prayer was before I truly believed in God, said King. In her own words, the books [written about her journey through desperate times] are about my stumbling, tragicomic journey which is roughly, born in and raised on the coast of New Hampshire, 20 years as a hardcore drunk, sobered up, moved west, had a spiritual crisis as a Beverly Hills lawyer, quit my job, started writing, converted and took my first communion in Hollywood. Then the hard part began. King, 64, didn t have a lightning-bolt conversion. The breakthrough came when she got sober. I was the recipient of unwarranted mercy, She said. I had the compulsion to drink for 20 years, and it was gone. That brought me to God. Coming into the Church was a slow process. I had deeply religious questions that I had to ask myself. I went to a lot of different Protestant churches, but the short answer was the body of Christ on the cross above the altar in the Catholic Church, and the Eucharist, and transubstantiation. This is the body and blood. How much I love him and long to be kinder and more patient. This is the way, the truth and the life. I was able to recognize that this is the heart of everything, that God became man and came to suffer with us and to teach us. Re-read the account of St. Mary Magdalen s experience of anguish, loss, and redemption at the empty tomb. What emotions do you think she was experiencing? What truths were she questioning? Where did she go for answers to her aching heart? Heather King also experienced the world s attraction and the loss of it all; trying to fill in her life what only divine, eternal love can fill. Have you felt this way in your life? Have you tried filling your heart that aches for the true, good and beautiful with cheap imitations? Have you experienced a spiritual awakening? What was that like? How have you changed?